CONTADOR HARRISON

The Digital Universe of Opportunities

Posted on April 23, 2014 11:56 pm

EMC Corporation has announced results of the seventh EMC Digital Universe study that finds digital universe is doubling in size every two years. The study found that the digital universe will multiply10-fold between 2013 and 2020 -from 4.4 trillion gigabytes to 44 trillion gigabytes, EMC announced in a press statement. The study with research and analysis by IDC also reveals how the emergence of wireless technologies, smart products and software-defined businesses are playing a central role in catapulting the volume of the world’s data. The key finding points include, the amount of information in the digital universe would fill a stack of iPad Air tablets reaching two third of the way to the moon equivalent to 157,674 miles. By 2020, there will be 6.6 stacks. Today, the average household creates enough data to fill 65 iPhones per year. In 2020, this will grow to 318 iPhones. Also, if a byte of data were a gallon of water, in only 10 seconds there would be enough data to fill an average house. In 2020, it will only take 2 seconds. According to IDC the number of devices or things that can be connected to the Internet is approaching 200 billion today, with 7 per cent or 14 billion already connected to and communicating over the Internet. The data from these connected devices represents 2 per cent of the world’s data today. IDC now forecasts that, by 2020, the number of connected devices will grow to 30 billion representing 10 per cent of the world’s data. The Internet of Things will also influence the massive amounts of “useful data which could simply means the data that could be analyzed in the digital universe.

In 2013, only 22 per cent of the information in the digital universe was considered useful data, but less than 5 per cent of the useful data was actually analyzed leaving a massive amount of data lost as dark matter in the digital universe. By 2020, more than 35 per cent of all data could be considered useful data, thanks to the growth of data from the Internet of Things, but it will be up to businesses to put this data to use. IDC estimates that 40 per cent of the data in the digital universe require some level of protection, from heightened privacy measures to fully encrypted data. And only half of that data – just 20 per cent are actually protected. Emerging markets are producing more data where currently, 60 per cent of data in the digital universe is attributed to mature markets such as Germany, Japan, and the United States, but by 2020, the percentage will flip, and emerging markets including Brazil, China, India, Mexico and Russia will account for the majority of data. Data is outpacing storage which are the world’s amount of available storage capacity like the unused bytes across all media types is growing slower than the digital universe. In 2013, the available storage capacity could hold just 33 per cent of the digital universe. By 2020, it will be able to store less than 15 per cent. Fortunately, most of the world’s data is transient and requires no storage. Data touched by the cloud will double and in 2013, less than 20 per cent of the data in the digital universe and by 2020, that percentage will double to 40 per cent. Consumers create data but enterprises are responsible for it where two-thirds of the digital universe bits created by consumers and workers, yet enterprises have liability or responsibility for 85 per cent of the digital universe.